Recreating "Croque Monsieur"...

I was telling Sharath, a waiter in Celini, during my employment in Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, "I love Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich". Sharath replied, "Even I like it to.Do you know what is it called in French?". I being ignorant, replied, "No, I dont." Sharath continued, "It is known as "Crunch[Croque] Mister[Monsieur]".

Well, the topic ended there. I made a lot of Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches--for me & for guests too, endless...in Chennai also I used to make, but the taste was not the same[obviously, the type of ham was different than used in Mumbai]. In Mumbai we used to use "Schwarzwalder" Ham, or "Blackforest Ham", but in Chennai, it was some other Ham, but inferior quality of ham.

In Kolkata, getting Blackforest Ham is difficult, since you need to chase hotel food suppliers for Ham & they will not sell less than 5 kg at a time[too more to consume in a month!!!]However, now I am in Dubai--here I have Waitrose, & dozens of Supermarkets ready to sell Hams of your preference & a couple of days before I won a sandwich griller in a hotel raffle[ now one more lying at home!!!], so today being an off-day, thought of recreating "Croque Monsieur".

Croque Monsieur

Ingredients:
White Bread- 2 slices
Ham- 2 slices
Cheese- 2 slices
Butter- enough to spread
Method:
1)Apply butter on the bread, on one sides of each. Put 2 slices of ham & followed by cheese.
2)Cover the Sandwich[with the buttered side down] & grill in a hot sandwich griller.
3)Once the cheese starts melting, take it off the grill & allow to cool down for a minute before cutting it.[Never ever trim the crusts of a grilled sandwich!!]What to go alongside??No French Fries pls...honestly, I dont like it. I would rather go for savoury potato wedges or mixed greens, but not that fried sh**!!!

There are various variations of this classic sandwich. "Croque Madame" is the same sandwich, garnished with a fried egg, sunny side up, refers to the hat worn by a woman. "Croque Provencal" will have addition of tomatoes, whilst "Croque Norvegien" has no ham at all!! Rather smoked salmon. And so on & so forth...
A more traditional & elaborate version of this sandwich comes with a topping of Mornay or Bechamel sauce.

This sunday I bought "Blackforest Ham" from Waitrose in Dubai to recreate this classic & then caught up with a couple of colleagues there. One of them asked what did I buy? I said,"Blackforest Ham" & he said, "Well you are so fussy man"...
Well, for a little pleasure, luxury & *nourishing* myself, I dont mind being *fussy*... :)